Take A Look At Who Invests Their Money With Bain Capital

When the Democrats convene in Charlotte next week, Mitt Romney's former firm of Bain Capital will undoubtedly be a major target. The hypocrisy of that is unveiled by New York Post writer DeRoy Murdock, who reveals that a lot of the screaming members of the Democrat base who will be the loudest in demonizing Bain Capital, especially public employee unions, invest their pension funds with the firm!

Government-worker pension funds are the chief beneficiaries of Bain’s economic stewardship. New York-based Preqin uses public documents, news accounts and Freedom of Information requests to track private-equity holdings. Since 2000, Preqin reports, the following funds have entrusted some $1.56 billion to Bain:

* Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund ($2.2 million)

* Indiana Public Retirement System ($39.3 million)

* Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System ($177.1 million)

* The Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System ($19.5 million)

* Maryland State Retirement and Pension System ($117.5 million)

* Public Employees’ Retirement System of Nevada ($20.3 million)

* State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio ($767.3 million)

* Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System ($231.5 million)

* Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island ($25 million)

* San Diego County Employees Retirement Association ($23.5 million)

* Teacher Retirement System of Texas ($122.5 million)

* Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System ($15 million)

These funds aggregate the savings of millions of unionized teachers, social workers, public-health personnel and first responders. Many would be startled to learn that their nest eggs are incubated by the company that Romney launched and the financiers he hired.

Leading universities have also profited from Bain’s expertise. According to Infrastructure Investor, Bain Capital Ventures Fund I (launched in 2001) managed wealth for “endowments and foundations such as Columbia, Princeton and Yale universities.”

According to BuyOuts magazine and S&P Capital IQ, Bain’s other college clients have included Cornell, Emory, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Notre Dame and the University of Pittsburgh. Preqin reports that the following schools have placed at least $424.6 million with Bain Capital between 1998 and 2008:

* Purdue University ($15.9 million)

* University of California ($225.7 million)

* University of Michigan ($130 million)

* University of Virginia ($20 million)

* University of Washington ($33 million)

Major, center-left foundations and cultural establishments also have seen their prospects brighten, thanks to Bain Capital. According to the aforementioned sources, such Bain clients have included the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ford Foundation, the Heinz Endowments and the Oprah Winfrey Foundation.

As Murdock points out, these are the same people railing against Bain as a bunch of heartless capitalists who gut companies for the sheer fun and profit of it and outsource their jobs overseas.

If that's true, then the public employee unions, left wing foundations and universities carrying the signs,mouthing the talking points and demonizing Bain Capital are profiting handsomely from this band of vicious capitalist cutthroats and cheerfully making money out of other people's misery.

On the other hand,if as all the evidence shows, Bain Capital really is a well run, ethical and savvy company that makes money streamlining and rescuing failing businesses, putting money and expertise into promising new ventures and providing a healthy return for its investors....then the Obama campaign, once again, has been less than truthful.

You pick which one you think it is.

By the way if you picked the second one, a lot of the people running Bain Capital today are people Mitt Romney hired, which says something about his ability to handle the job as president.

As compared to a lot of the tax cheats, political ideologues, academics with no real world experience and doctrinaire quasi-Marxists President Obama hired.

Again, you make the pick.